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WTCC to end 30-year Nürburgring drought in 2015 [w/video]

Head out to the Nürburgring, and you can witness all manner of racing. Most of it remains confined, however, to the GP-Strecke, where you'll find superbikes, DTM touring cars, GT racing cars and even the occasional Formula One race competing in top-level world championships. But not on the infamous Nordschleife – a circuit so dangerous that F1 left it in 1976 and the World Sports Car Championship (precursor to today's World Endurance Championship) packed it up in '83. These days, the local VLN series constitutes the bulk of the action, but it won't have the Green Hell all to itself for long.

That's because the FIA World Touring Car Championship has announced a new race at the Nürburgring for the 2015 season that will not only take place on the Nordschleife, but on the entire 16-mile combined circuit used by the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. The new race will be the first time a major world championship will race on the Nordschleife in more than three decades.

For its part, the WTCC hasn't raced in Germany altogether for a few years now, and that was at Oschersleben. The inaugural WTCC season in 1987 included a race at the Nürburgring, but that was, again, on the GP circuit and not on the Nordschleife. The preceeding European Touring Car Championship occasionally raced at the Green Hell, but that's going back several decades now. Even DTM stopped racing on the Nordschleife in 1992.

Learning over 150 turns will undoubtedly prove a challenge even for proven champions like Yvan Muller, Sébastien Loeb and Gabriele Tarquini, but from the video announcement below, it looks like they'll be up for the task.

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